The Sunday of Love.  Emmanuel, God will be with us through his child.  Let's explore how this came about.  Here's this teenage girl found pregnant.  Joseph acts not out of legality but of love and chooses to divorce her quietly not to give her over to public disgrace, even though the knows  he's not the baby's daddy.  And then lo and behold an angel comes to him in a dream and the problem seems to be solved--The Holy Spirit impregnated Mary.  And this child will be one who saves his people, he fulfills the prophecy of old--Emmanuel, God will be with us through his child.

So Joseph wakes up as the text says he did as the angel commanded him, taking Mary as his wife.  But he obeyed.

Not just a story about Mary and Joseph, this passage is a birth announcement.  And the ultimate player is God.  This is a story about God, and ultimately it's a Love story.

The Holy Spirit does something TO Mary.  And what is Mary's part?  Mary embodied Jesus' name, Emmanuel, before any of us did:  God with me, God within me.

We hallow Mary for her ability to embody Jesus, but aren't we given the same chance?  Doesn't this child to be named  Emmanuel, God with Us include every one of us?  Aren't we Easter people who believe that the Messiah has already come?

God, as Love, comes to Mary, comes to Joseph--in a dream.  Bidden or unbidden, God comes as love.

So how do we receive this Emmanuel, this Love come down at Christmas?  It brings us back full circle to where we began this series--worship.  That's all we are called to do.  That's why Christina Rossetti's poem, "Love Came Down at Christmas" moves from talking about the love that came down and was born to the second stanza which calls us to "Worship we the Godhead, love incarnate, love divine; worship we our Jesus--what shall be our sacred sign?"

Mary worships God and is able to receive the Holy Spirit coming inside her.  Joseph worships God and is able to receive the dream with faith and treat Mary with honor and dignity.  They worship God and it affects how they treat one another.

May this season, this day, if you don't hear or see anything else, may you see Emmanuel, God with you, as Love, and may we impart it after it's "deep, deep down in our heart."